Telecommunication networks provide for the transmission of information across some distance through terrestrial, wireless or satellite communication networks. Such communications may involve voice, data or multimedia information, among others. In a typical telephony-based communication network, a long-distance voice communication is received at a local exchange carrier (LEC), transmitted to a long-distance carrier and terminated at another LEC at the destination. For example, a prior telecommunication network is depicted in FIG. 1. In this example, a communication is initiated or originates at a local telephonic device, indicated in FIG. 1 as telephone 102. The originating LEC 104 connected to the local telephonic device 102 routes the communication to one of possibly several long-distance carrier networks associated with the LEC. Typically, the long-distance carrier selected to transmit the communication is associated with the telephone number of the local telephonic device from which the communication originates.
For example, the originating LEC 104 may maintain a database of connected telephone numbers and associates a long-distance network with the numbers for routing of long-distance communications. Thus, when a long-distance communication is received by the LEC 104, the database is accessed to determine which available long-distance network to transmit the communication. As such, a long-distance communication made from one device connected to the originating LEC 104 may be routed to network A (106), while another long-distance communication made from a separate device connected to the originating LEC may be routed to long-distance network B (108) for handling. While only two long-distance networks are shown in FIG. 1, any number of long-distance networks may be connected to the originating LEC 104 to handle long-distance communications originating from the one or more devices associated with the LEC.
To associate the originating device with a long-distance carrier, the LEC 104 associates a carrier identification code (CIC) with the incoming communication. The CIC identifies the long-distance network that will handle the communication. With this information, the originating LEC 104 routes the long-distance communication to the corresponding long-distance network. The long-distance network then routes the communication through the network to a receiving LEC 110 that completes the connection to the receiving telephonic device 112.
Differences in the long-distance networks make the routing of a long-distance communication to the proper network important. For example, each network may provide different service packages to the customers of that particular network for long-distance communications. More particularly and for example, network A may provide toll-free services that differ from services offered by network B. In addition, each network may provide varying billing pricing and procedures for long-distance communications transmitted through the network. Further, each network may utilize different communication platforms or protocols such that a communication transmitted by network A is in a different transmission format than a communication transmitted by network B. Also, because of the different formats utilized, the networks may differ in the type of communication devices that comprise the networks, as such devices are typically format specific.
However, in some instances, it may be desirous to transmit a communication through a network not indicated by the CIC associated with the communication. For example, a long-distance network may not be directly connected to a particular LEC such that the network cannot provide long-distance services to potential customers connected to the LEC. In another example, a long-distance carrier may own two or more networks that are connected to a single LEC, such that redundant components are included at the LEC for that carrier. In addition, a carrier may desire that all long-distance communications for each network owned by that carrier be routed through one particular network, for cost and efficiency reasons. Hence, among other things, there exists a need for method and system for flexibility in the processing of a communication intended for a first network by another network's components.